The present invention relates to a battery (e.g., a rechargeable lead-acid vehicle battery for use in starting, lighting, and ignition applications). More specifically, the present invention relates to sealing plugs for use with such batteries.
A plug arrangement for sealing a cell opening in a rechargeable battery in a gastight manner is known from DE 100 23 747 A1. In this case, the cell interior is connected via an opening in the outer surface of the sealing plug to a cavity which is formed between an upper part and lower part of the housing cover. The opening is in this case provided with a two-way sealing membrane. In this case, the sealing plug must be inserted carefully in order to avoid damage to the sealing membrane.
EP 0 996 986 B1 describes a plug for sealing battery cells, which has an essentially cylindrical housing which is formed from plastic and is open at the bottom, and whose upper opening can be closed by a cover. When the plug is fitted in a rechargeable battery, then gases which rise out of the cells and vaporized liquid can be held by a labyrinth insert which is provided in the area of the upper opening of the plug housing. Facing the cells, the labyrinth insert has pins, from which condensing liquid can drip downwards into the cell. A basket which runs conically towards the cell is provided in a lower opening of the plug such that it can be moved longitudinally and is used for checking the liquid and for checking the replenishment of the liquid. In this case, it is difficult to insert the plug into the rechargeable battery since, first of all, the basket must be inserted into an opening above the cells, and the upper part of the plug must then be inserted precisely at right angles to the cover of the rechargeable battery.
Furthermore, a sealing plug for a rechargeable battery is known from DE 33 30 823 A1, which has an insert part which can be inserted into an opening in the rechargeable battery cover. The insert part which can be sealed by a cover is connected to a filling nozzle, which merges integrally with an acid cage. The acid cage is used to check the acid level of the rechargeable battery and has circumferential slots which are bounded by a lower edge. Once again, the insertion of the plug is difficult, particularly in the event of manufacturing discrepancies between the opening dimensions and the standard sizes.
An electrical rechargeable battery which is described by the Laid-Open Specification DE 198 56 691 A1 has degassing plugs which are arranged in a cell cover and on whose lower part a splash basket is provided. On its circumference, the splash basket has slots which widen downwards. The splash basket likewise has a base, which is tilted inwards and extends upwards in a conical shape towards the center of the plug. At the bottom, the slots are bounded by the base. This makes the degassing plug stiff, which means that the degassing plug must be inserted accurately at right angles to the cell cover.
It would be advantageous to provide sealing plugs for a battery which may be inserted into filling openings of the battery in a relatively simple and efficient manner. It would also be advantageous to provide sealing plugs that enable sealing of filling openings even if there is, for example, a manufacturing-dependent offset between the openings of the cover and the openings in the degassing system located underneath it. It would also be advantageous to provide a battery having sealing plugs that are configured to allow for relatively forgiving insertion of the sealing plugs into openings provided in the battery. It would be advantageous to provide batteries and sealing plugs having any one or more of these or other advantageous features.